Overall Summary (Technology): With the new era of music, radio stations multiplied rapidly to spread 20th century Jazz and Rock 'N' Roll to everyone. Along with the rising of radio stations came the invention of the Television. By 1954 55% of American households contained a television. Post WW II innovations enabled microwave relays to transmit reception to televisions from long distances. Edward R. Murrow (veteran radio broadcaster) introduced on the seen reporting and person to person interviews such as See It Now. Advertising expenditures for TV increased by $1,830,00 from 1950 to 1960. The television created family bondage and thus the TV dinner was invented. Movie theaters created Stereophonic sound: sound that surrounds the viewer (1952), also the invention of Smell -0- Vision: aromas inputted into the theater coinciding with the movie scenes. The housing industry created scientifically planned housing districts: Suburbia. Additionally explosive weapon innovation was highly competitive between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. America launched an H-bomb in 1950 and the Soviets launch their own thermonuclear weapon in 1953. This international brinkmanship was due to advancements of nuclear weapons in the Soviet and American laboratories.
(Analysis) This advertisement portrays the extreme influence that television had on the entire American family. The name "Lazy Bones" emphasizes the stagnant attitude of TV watching. However, every member of the family member is enjoying the TV and sends the message of having a TV and remote is the key to a happy American family.
(Analysis) This is another advertisement that introduces a bourgeois product blossoming from the technological advancement of the Television. The food industries' creation of a meal that incorporates TV watching is an adequate culinary invention. The average American family that watches seven hours of TV each day can eat dinner without missing their favorite shows. The words "quick" and "wonderful" expresses the simplicity in making the TV dinner.
Culture:
Overall Summary (culture): With the introduction of Suburbia came a uniform class of a bourgeois residents, each person conforming to the content environment of the tranquil, affordable, clean, and pleasant suburban culture. Suburban lifestyles changed the meaning of a suitable American life, suggesting that all you need is a small quiet house, a job, car, and a spouse. On the other side of the spectrum were the non-conformists or "Beatniks": people who were indifferent to material possessions and suburban living. Beatniks were majorly literary artists who dressed in a lackadaisical fashion, sporting sandals, scruffy beards (men), and short party dresses (women). Embracing Buddhism, minimal work, inexpensive houses, and sometimes illegal drugs, Beatniks were the opposite of proper suburban family. Additionally another class of Americans was dubbed to teenagers, finally the path between childhood and adolescence was recognized. Teenage culture was immediately nuanced into advertising and film, portraying teenage necessities and trends such as pimple creams, soda pops, lipstick, and sports cars. Lastly, after U.S. soldiers came home from WW II the 1950's was a very reproductive time period. In 1950 alone 3,548,000 babies were born due to the intimate and family oriented culture of the middle-class.
Time Magazine February 26 1951
"High & Light"
"A Chicago father, home early one afternoon last autumn, opened the door of his son's bedroom and found himself staring at a terrifying tableau. His son, a 15-year-old vocational-school student, was sitting there, one forearm bared, a hypodermic syringe in his hand. Another boy was holding a teaspoon over the flame of a cigarette lighter. Both the syringe and the teaspoon contained heroin." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814391,00.html?internalid=ACA
(Analysis) This time magazine article focuses on the problem of drug abuse coming from the new class young Americans. While this may be just an anecdotal article is emphasizes the point of teenage rebellion and delinquency. Problems of middle-class drug abuse was apparently severe, given that the boy was 15 and he was using heroin.
http://homedir-b.libsyn.com/podcasts/f2dc1de91f1a0fd30830afb4549dce0e/4a293e28/chicagoscope/images/gogo_clock.jpg
(Analysis) This flyer targets teenagers who are eager to dance to the latest 1950's Rock 'N' Roll and Jazz music. At the bottom of the flyer it politely asks girls to wear skirts or dresses and boys to were sport coats and slacks. This night club is for teens only, identifying that only a certain age group or culture of Americans can be admitted into this facility.
Cold War:
Overall Summary (cold war): The "red scare" was spreading across America, largely due to Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy and other anti-communists sought out to eradicate all communist activities, interviewing thousands of suspected Americans. In 1953 39 states passed laws making it illegal to support a governmental overthrow. Also the U.S. and the Soviets were competing over the powerful weapons effort; America launching a H-bomb on 1952 and the Soviets exploding a thermonuclear weapon in 1953; both military powers were on the brink of nuclear war. America was convinced that nuclear weapons were pointed at its countryside; schools began implementing nuclear fallout safety during school. The tension between NATO (U.S., Norway, Italy, West Germany, France, Great Britain, Belguim, and others) and the new Warsaw Pact (1955) countries (Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and others) was growing day by day.
Joseph McCarthy: Spread of Communism in the United States speech (1950)
(Analysis) McCarthy is emphasizing that there is evident danger during cold war times, suggesting that the world houses two types of individuals; communist and non-communist. As he addresses the conflict of the cold war and the increasing hostility of armed military powers, McCarthy will lead into his attack on American citizens allegedly associated with communism.
1950's Phone Call to the President Involving the Korean War
Overall Summary (Civil Rights): Most Native American, African American, and Latino families could not afford to live in the suburbs or weren't welcome by the white middle class. These non-whites were forced to live in inner city slums or barrios. To assist the poverty stricken families the National Housing Act of 1949 was passed to provide a decent home for every American family. In reality when the barrios were torn down the residents didn't move to decent homes; in fact most non-whites moved to a slum elsewhere. Mexican citizens were hired for labor during the war, when the program terminated 2 million migrants were deported between 1953 and 1955. Furthermore, Operation Wetback (wetback refers to a mexican who is illegally crossing the rio grande into the U.S.) was initiated to return all illegal migrants. Mexican American citizens such as Felix Longoria, who's dead body was rejected from a funeral home due to his Mexican ethnicity, faced extreme racial discrimination. In 1953 the government neglected its responsibility for Native Americans, eliminating economic support and selling tribal land to developers. Fortunately the Bureau of Indian Affairs helped relocate 35,000 Native Americans to urban areas, however they too faced racial discrimination.
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
"In each of the cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis. In each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. This segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. In each of the cases other than the Delaware case, a three-judge federal district court denied relief to the plaintiffs on the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine announced by this Court in Plessy v. Ferguson. Under that doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities, even though these facilities be separate. In the Delaware case, the Supreme Court of Delaware adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be admitted to the white schools because of their superiority to the Negro schools." http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?entryid=253972&issublink=true&searchtext=civil%20rights%201950%27s&type=simple&option=all
(Analysis) This court case is annunciating the fact that African Americans are not being admitted into equal schooling facilities. The so-called "separate but equal" doctrine states that blacks can attend a school equally superior to a all white school but it must be a separate facility. However Mr. Chief Justic is stating that during a past supreme court case a African American was admitted into a white school because of the superiority of that facility. Therefore white schools seem to be not only separate from African American schools during this time but also of higher quality.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html
(Analysis) On the front page of the Montgomery Advertiser is evidence of the 1955 bus seat boycott by Rosa Parks. This refusal by a brave Mrs. Parks immediately started the African American boycott on city buses. The second picture from the top reveals a "lone negro women" at the bus stop, she is one of the only African Americans to take the bus after this historic civil rights stand up.
Economic:
Overall Summary (Economy): Home ownership, median family income, automobile registration, and savings accounts drastically increased between 1950 and 1955. With the new development of franchises, where businesses like McDonalds speckled their fast food restaurants across hundreds of locations in America. The housing industry was off the charts in production; 85% of the homes built in the 1950's were suburban. Consequently the economic prosperousness spurred a rapid reproduction of American couples. Also, Americans were spending billions of dollars on simply leisure items: sporting events, magazines, comic books, and television ets. Subsequently the stylish automobile attracted many leisure buyers. Consumerism was the name given to this leisurely buying: someone who believes material goods determines success. The first credit card was invented in 1950 encouraging the buy now pay later attitude. And lastly with the success of the television, advertising expenditures increased from $6 billion in 1950 to $9 billion in 1955.
http://wwww.gordosoft.com:443/images/deepdebt.jpg
http://wwww.gordosoft.com:443/images/deepdebt.jpg
(Analysis) This political cartoon pokes fun at the materialistic accumulation of products from the common American. During this time period the accumulation of material goods signifies your overall wealth. Furthermore the recent invention of the credit card (held in the womans hand) encourages the "buy now pay later attitude".
Dwight D. Eisenhower: State of the Union message (1953)
"In all our current discussions on these and related facts, the weight of evidence is clearly against the use of controls in their present forms. They have proved largely unsatisfactory or unworkable. They have not prevented inflation; they have not kept down the cost of living. Dissatisfaction with them is wholly justified. I am convinced that now—as well as in the long run—free and competitive prices will best serve the interests of all the people, and best meet the changing, growing needs of our economy." http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=33&entryid=254220&searchtext=cold+war+1950%27s&typ
e=simple&option=all
(Analysis) Eisenhower is taking a Classic Liberal approach by saying a controlled economy has been and is unsatisfactory. His opinion is rather to let the economy be free and competitive, for that will serve the people and make America a more lucrative nation.
The United States of America From 1950-1955
Technology:
Overall Summary (Technology): With the new era of music, radio stations multiplied rapidly to spread 20th century Jazz and Rock 'N' Roll to everyone. Along with the rising of radio stations came the invention of the Television. By 1954 55% of American households contained a television. Post WW II innovations enabled microwave relays to transmit reception to televisions from long distances. Edward R. Murrow (veteran radio broadcaster) introduced on the seen reporting and person to person interviews such as See It Now. Advertising expenditures for TV increased by $1,830,00 from 1950 to 1960. The television created family bondage and thus the TV dinner was invented. Movie theaters created Stereophonic sound: sound that surrounds the viewer (1952), also the invention of Smell -0- Vision: aromas inputted into the theater coinciding with the movie scenes. The housing industry created scientifically planned housing districts: Suburbia. Additionally explosive weapon innovation was highly competitive between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. America launched an H-bomb in 1950 and the Soviets launch their own thermonuclear weapon in 1953. This international brinkmanship was due to advancements of nuclear weapons in the Soviet and American laboratories.1950's TV Remote Advertisement
(Analysis) This advertisement portrays the extreme influence that television had on the entire American family. The name "Lazy Bones" emphasizes the stagnant attitude of TV watching. However, every member of the family member is enjoying the TV and sends the message of having a TV and remote is the key to a happy American family.
http://www.history.ilstu.edu/nhp/civilization/Site/images/swanson.jpg(Analysis) This is another advertisement that introduces a bourgeois product blossoming from the technological advancement of the Television. The food industries' creation of a meal that incorporates TV watching is an adequate culinary invention. The average American family that watches seven hours of TV each day can eat dinner without missing their favorite shows. The words "quick" and "wonderful" expresses the simplicity in making the TV dinner.
Culture:
Overall Summary (culture): With the introduction of Suburbia came a uniform class of a bourgeois residents, each person conforming to the content environment of the tranquil, affordable, clean, and pleasant suburban culture. Suburban lifestyles changed the meaning of a suitable American life, suggesting that all you need is a small quiet house, a job, car, and a spouse. On the other side of the spectrum were the non-conformists or "Beatniks": people who were indifferent to material possessions and suburban living. Beatniks were majorly literary artists who dressed in a lackadaisical fashion, sporting sandals, scruffy beards (men), and short party dresses (women). Embracing Buddhism, minimal work, inexpensive houses, and sometimes illegal drugs, Beatniks were the opposite of proper suburban family. Additionally another class of Americans was dubbed to teenagers, finally the path between childhood and adolescence was recognized. Teenage culture was immediately nuanced into advertising and film, portraying teenage necessities and trends such as pimple creams, soda pops, lipstick, and sports cars. Lastly, after U.S. soldiers came home from WW II the 1950's was a very reproductive time period. In 1950 alone 3,548,000 babies were born due to the intimate and family oriented culture of the middle-class.Time Magazine February 26 1951
"High & Light"
"A Chicago father, home early one afternoon last autumn, opened the door of his son's bedroom and found himself staring at a terrifying tableau. His son, a 15-year-old vocational-school student, was sitting there, one forearm bared, a hypodermic syringe in his hand. Another boy was holding a teaspoon over the flame of a cigarette lighter. Both the syringe and the teaspoon contained heroin."http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814391,00.html?internalid=ACA
(Analysis) This time magazine article focuses on the problem of drug abuse coming from the new class young Americans. While this may be just an anecdotal article is emphasizes the point of teenage rebellion and delinquency. Problems of middle-class drug abuse was apparently severe, given that the boy was 15 and he was using heroin.
http://homedir-b.libsyn.com/podcasts/f2dc1de91f1a0fd30830afb4549dce0e/4a293e28/chicagoscope/images/gogo_clock.jpg
(Analysis) This flyer targets teenagers who are eager to dance to the latest 1950's Rock 'N' Roll and Jazz music. At the bottom of the flyer it politely asks girls to wear skirts or dresses and boys to were sport coats and slacks. This night club is for teens only, identifying that only a certain age group or culture of Americans can be admitted into this facility.
Cold War:
Overall Summary (cold war): The "red scare" was spreading across America, largely due to Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy and other anti-communists sought out to eradicate all communist activities, interviewing thousands of suspected Americans. In 1953 39 states passed laws making it illegal to support a governmental overthrow. Also the U.S. and the Soviets were competing over the powerful weapons effort; America launching a H-bomb on 1952 and the Soviets exploding a thermonuclear weapon in 1953; both military powers were on the brink of nuclear war. America was convinced that nuclear weapons were pointed at its countryside; schools began implementing nuclear fallout safety during school. The tension between NATO (U.S., Norway, Italy, West Germany, France, Great Britain, Belguim, and others) and the new Warsaw Pact (1955) countries (Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and others) was growing day by day.Joseph McCarthy: Spread of Communism in the United States speech (1950)
"Five years after a world war has been one, men's hearts should anticipate a long peace, and men's minds should be free from the heavy weight that comes from war. But this is not such a period—for this is not a period of peace. This is a time of the "cold war." This is a time when all the world is split into two vast, increasingly hostile armed camps."http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=33&entryid=298780&searchtext=cold+war+1950%27s&type=simple&option=all
(Analysis) McCarthy is emphasizing that there is evident danger during cold war times, suggesting that the world houses two types of individuals; communist and non-communist. As he addresses the conflict of the cold war and the increasing hostility of armed military powers, McCarthy will lead into his attack on American citizens allegedly associated with communism.
1950's Phone Call to the President Involving the Korean War
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/week1/elsy_2_1.htm
(Analysis) This a written document of the original phone call to the president informing him that the North Korea had commenced with an invasion of South Korea, signifying the start of the Korean War and the United States' responsive action.
Civil Rights Movement:
Overall Summary (Civil Rights): Most Native American, African American, and Latino families could not afford to live in the suburbs or weren't welcome by the white middle class. These non-whites were forced to live in inner city slums or barrios. To assist the poverty stricken families the National Housing Act of 1949 was passed to provide a decent home for every American family. In reality when the barrios were torn down the residents didn't move to decent homes; in fact most non-whites moved to a slum elsewhere. Mexican citizens were hired for labor during the war, when the program terminated 2 million migrants were deported between 1953 and 1955. Furthermore, Operation Wetback (wetback refers to a mexican who is illegally crossing the rio grande into the U.S.) was initiated to return all illegal migrants. Mexican American citizens such as Felix Longoria, who's dead body was rejected from a funeral home due to his Mexican ethnicity, faced extreme racial discrimination. In 1953 the government neglected its responsibility for Native Americans, eliminating economic support and selling tribal land to developers. Fortunately the Bureau of Indian Affairs helped relocate 35,000 Native Americans to urban areas, however they too faced racial discrimination.Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
"In each of the cases, minors of the Negro race, through their legal representatives, seek the aid of the courts in obtaining admission to the public schools of their community on a nonsegregated basis. In each instance, they had been denied admission to schools attended by white children under laws requiring or permitting segregation according to race. This segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. In each of the cases other than the Delaware case, a three-judge federal district court denied relief to the plaintiffs on the so-called "separate but equal" doctrine announced by this Court in Plessy v. Ferguson. Under that doctrine, equality of treatment is accorded when the races are provided substantially equal facilities, even though these facilities be separate. In the Delaware case, the Supreme Court of Delaware adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that the plaintiffs be admitted to the white schools because of their superiority to the Negro schools."http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?entryid=253972&issublink=true&searchtext=civil%20rights%201950%27s&type=simple&option=all
(Analysis) This court case is annunciating the fact that African Americans are not being admitted into equal schooling facilities. The so-called "separate but equal" doctrine states that blacks can attend a school equally superior to a all white school but it must be a separate facility. However Mr. Chief Justic is stating that during a past supreme court case a African American was admitted into a white school because of the superiority of that facility. Therefore white schools seem to be not only separate from African American schools during this time but also of higher quality.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html
(Analysis) On the front page of the Montgomery Advertiser is evidence of the 1955 bus seat boycott by Rosa Parks. This refusal by a brave Mrs. Parks immediately started the African American boycott on city buses. The second picture from the top reveals a "lone negro women" at the bus stop, she is one of the only African Americans to take the bus after this historic civil rights stand up.
Economic:
Overall Summary (Economy): Home ownership, median family income, automobile registration, and savings accounts drastically increased between 1950 and 1955. With the new development of franchises, where businesses like McDonalds speckled their fast food restaurants across hundreds of locations in America. The housing industry was off the charts in production; 85% of the homes built in the 1950's were suburban. Consequently the economic prosperousness spurred a rapid reproduction of American couples. Also, Americans were spending billions of dollars on simply leisure items: sporting events, magazines, comic books, and television ets. Subsequently the stylish automobile attracted many leisure buyers. Consumerism was the name given to this leisurely buying: someone who believes material goods determines success. The first credit card was invented in 1950 encouraging the buy now pay later attitude. And lastly with the success of the television, advertising expenditures increased from $6 billion in 1950 to $9 billion in 1955.http://wwww.gordosoft.com:443/images/deepdebt.jpg
(Analysis) This political cartoon pokes fun at the materialistic accumulation of products from the common American. During this time period the accumulation of material goods signifies your overall wealth. Furthermore the recent invention of the credit card (held in the womans hand) encourages the "buy now pay later attitude".
Dwight D. Eisenhower: State of the Union message (1953)
"In all our current discussions on these and related facts, the weight of evidence is clearly against the use of controls in their present forms. They have proved largely unsatisfactory or unworkable. They have not prevented inflation; they have not kept down the cost of living. Dissatisfaction with them is wholly justified. I am convinced that now—as well as in the long run—free and competitive prices will best serve the interests of all the people, and best meet the changing, growing needs of our economy."http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=33&entryid=254220&searchtext=cold+war+1950%27s&typ
e=simple&option=all
(Analysis) Eisenhower is taking a Classic Liberal approach by saying a controlled economy has been and is unsatisfactory. His opinion is rather to let the economy be free and competitive, for that will serve the people and make America a more lucrative nation.
Works Cited
Alba. "Podcasts." Homedir-b. November 1950. June 4th, 2009. <http://homedir-b.libsyn.com/podcasts/f2dc1de91f1a0fd30830afb4549dce0e/4a293e28/chicagoscope/images/gogo_clock.jpg>
Chicago Tribune. "The Civil Rights Era." African America Odyssey. December 6, 1955. June 4th, 2009. <
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart9.html>
Civilization. "History in the Making: Swanson TV Dinners." 1957. Vlasic Foods International. June 4th, 2009 <http://www.history.ilstu.edu/nhp/civilization/Site/images/swanson.jpg>
Dwight D. Eisenhower. " Dwight D. Eisenhower: State of the Union message (1953)." ABC-CLIO. February 2, 1953. June 3rd, 2009. <http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=33&entryid=254220&searchtext=cold+war+1950%27s&typ
e=simple&option=all>
George Elsey. "Notes by George Elsey Describing Commuications on June 24, 1950..." Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. June 24, 1950. June 4th, 2009. <http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/korea/large/week1/elsy_2_1.htm>
Joseph McCarthy. "Joseph McCarthy: Spread of Communism in the United States speech (1950)." ABC-CLIO. Feb. 1950. June 4th, 2009. < http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=33&entryid=298780&searchtext=cold+war+
1950%27s&type=simple&option=all>
J.S. Mines. "Deep Debt." Gordosoft. June 6th, 2009. <http://wwww.gordosoft.com:443/images/deepdebt.jpg>
Mr. Chief Justice Warren. "Brown v. Board of Education (1954)." ABC-CLIO. 1954. June 4th, 2009. < http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?entryid=253972&issublink=true&searchtext=civil%20rights
%201950%27s&type=simple&option=all>
TIME. " "High & Light." " TIME. Monday, February 26, 1951. June 4th, 2009. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814391,00.html?internalid=ACA>
Zenith Radio Corporation. "Happy Dayz." Authentic History. June 4th, 2009. <http://www.authentichistory.com/1950s/happydays/lazy_bones_remote_ad.html>